Validating that a garage conversion was legal in Tampa Bay Area

[Amelia Casalenuovo]

Hi!

Newbie investor here looking to close on what will be my first investment property (short term rental) in the Tampa Florida area. Everything looked great during the inspection but the property has a garage that was converted to a living space / living room. When I look at the permitting history for the property, I see permits were obtained for electrical work and windows, however I do not see that a building permit was obtained at any point in the last 20 years. Are building permits always needed in addition to electrical work/windows?

In florida, you have to submit a request for records from 2004-1989 as they are not available online. The house was built in 1976, so if it was before 1989, It sounds like there might not be a way to verify.

So my questions here are, do you get an architect and/or engineer to come look at it to make sure it is built to code and then apply for an as is permit from there or is there another course of action to take? I guess it could be possible that maybe the garage was not converted (the square footage of the house matches what the property records parcel lookup says on my county website, so it is possible the garage conversion could have been older). Also, the official county property record has the former garage area listed as "BAS" which is the code they use for base area and this matches the rest of the 1st floor of the house. Because it's NOT listed as a garage on the parcel search, does that mean I'm in the clear?

If you are able to provide any insight I would really appreciate it!

Amelia

[Dillon Cook]

That type of conversion shouldn't be an issue for you to close in Tampa. I've seen a SFH with an unpermitted garage-to-bedroom conversion go through without any problems from title, insurance, or lender. If you're concerned with "legality", this is a much different and lesser issue than, say, converting garage to a studio/2nd unit. I would be more concerned with condition and if the inspectors saw any physical problems. Hopefully this property is not within a HOA...